What is Personality?
Personality is made up the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. Personality originates within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life.Personality psychologists are interested in the unique characteristics of individuals, as well as similarities among groups of people.
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Characteristics of Personality
- Personality is organized and consistent.
- Personality is psychological, but is influenced by biological needs and processes.
- Personality causes behaviors to happen.
- Personality is displayed through thoughts, feelings, behaviors and many other ways.
The Study of Personality
There are a number of different techniques that are used in the study of personality. Each technique has its own strengths and weaknesses.- Experimental methods are those in which the researcher controls and manipulates the variables of interests and takes measures of the results. This is the most scientific form of research, but experimental research can be difficult when studying aspects of personality such as motivations, emotions, and drives. These ideas are internal, abstract, and extremely difficult to measure.
- Case studies and self-report methods rely on in-depth analysis of an individual as well as information provided by the individual. Case studies rely heavily on the interpretation of the observer, while self-report methods depend upon the memory of the individual of interest. Because of this, these methods tend to be highly subjective and it is difficult to generalize the findings to a larger population.
- Clinical research relies upon information gathered from clinical patients over the course of treatment. Many personality theories are based upon this type of research, but because the research subjects are unique and exhibit abnormal behavior, this research tends to be highly subjective and difficult to generalize.
- Read More: Introduction to Psychology Research Methods
